Mild head injuries, such as concussions, account for approximately 600,000 hospital admissions per year. Mild traumatic brain injury (“MTBI”) is a traumatically induced alteration in brain function that is manifested by an alteration of awareness or consciousness, including but not limited to loss of consciousness, “ding,” sensation of being dazed or stunned, sensation of “wooziness” or “fogginess,” seizure, or amnesic period; and signs and symptoms commonly associated with postconcussion syndrome.
A concussion is an alteration of consciousness, disturbance in vision and equilibrium caused by a direct blow to the head, rapid acceleration and/or deceleration of the head, or direct blow to the base of the skull from a vertical impact to the chin. The most common cause of a concussion is a blow to the head, with people participating in high impact contact sports especially at risk. Concussions result in complications including severe headaches, dizziness, earaches, facial pain, ringing in the ears, nausea, irritability, confusion, disorientation, dizziness, amnesia, concentration difficulty, blurred vision, sleep disturbance, increased size of one pupil, severe weakness in an arm or leg, photophobia, vertigo, impaired speech and permanent brain damage.
The brain is a soft, jell-like structure covered with a dense network of blood vessels and contains billions of nerve cells and a complexity of interconnecting fibers. The brain is a well-protected part of the body enclosed in a strong bony case, referred to as the skull, and cushioned in a bath of water, called the cerebrospinal fluid. A blow to the head causes the brain to rebound against the skull, potentially causing a tearing and twisting of the structures and blood vessels of the brain resulting in a disturbance of function of the electrical activity of the nerve cells in the brain and a breakdown of the usual flow of messages within the brain. The blow to the head can cause multiple shearing injuries which stretch and tear the soft nerve tissue and cause multiple points of bleeding from small blood vessels of the brain. A blow to the jaw causes the jaw bone to violently come into contact with an adjacent area of the skull, causing jarring and damage. Athletes, in particular, suffer frequent blows to the jaw with the highest frequency for athletes participating in contact sports. Approximately 95% of concussions suffered while playing football are the result of the lower jaw relaying the shock of impact to the brain. As many as approximately 40% of retired National Football League (NFL) players may suffer from permanent brain damage from the result of multiple concussions. In addition, over 90% of brain concussions resulting in unconsciousness to athletes come from a blow or trauma to the jaw.
Dental injuries account for the most common type of orofacial injury during athletic activities. Orofacial injuries are injuries to the jaw and teeth. Every athlete involved in contact sports has about a 10% chance per season of suffering an orofacial injury, or about a 33% to about a 56% chance during an athletic career. Though a majority of dental injuries can be prevented by using a mouthguard, the extent of prevention of dental injuries lies in the ability of a mouthguard to better align the jaw of an athlete. Mouthguards are flexible devices worn in athletic and recreation activities to protect the teeth and mouth from trauma.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,588,430 to Kittelson et al. discloses a composite performance enhancing mouthguard with embedded wedge. The Kittelson et al. mouthguard is composed of multiple distinct materials and is adapted to fit the upper teeth of the mouth of an athlete.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,092,524 to Barnes Sr. discloses a mouthguard designed to minimize discomfort and speech interference associated with conventional mouthpieces. The Barnes Sr. mouthguard includes a pair of posterior portions molded to receive and overlay the posterior teeth where the posterior portions are interconnected with a front portion that overlays the incisors. The front portion of the Barnes Sr. mouthguard is dimensioned to cover substantially all of the front surface of the incisors while leaving the lower or cutting edge of the incisors exposed.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,931,164 to Kiely et al. discloses an athletic mouthguard including a U-shaped base portion, an upwardly projecting inner flange portion joined to an inner edge of the base portion and an upwardly projecting outer flange portion joined to an outer edge of the base portion. The Kiely et al. mouthguard is molded from a composition including a light pervious foundation material and a light reflective aggregate distributed throughout the foundation material.
Previous mouthguards do not effectively prevent head injury in athletes. Prior art mouthguards do not adapt to the differing mouth structures of athletes, and do not effectively provide a shock absorbing mechanism from blows to the jaw. Prior art mouthguards inadequately compensate for unparallel jaw alignment to effectively prevent transfer of force to the brain. Therefore, there remains a need in the art for a safe, comfortable and effective dental appliance that provides parallel alignment of the jaw while absorbing the force from a blow to the jaw.